[nagdu] Natural Remedies

Mon Jul 28 04:12:45 UTC 2014

If anyone wants to know more about my thoughts and opinions on the matter,
not only for dogs but also for humans, please feel free to email me off
list.

Nicole 

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Raven Tolliver
via nagdu
Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2014 8:59 PM
To: Sherry Gomes; NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog
Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Natural Remedies

Ladies,
There is research on and documented cases pertaining to an array of natural
modalities. If you look, you will certainly find it. The FDA will not
approve it because they will not make money from it. How can they make money
off of a healthy person who eats right and adds nutritional herbs and
botanicals to their food. They can't.
The side effects that many people suffer from when they venture into
botanical medicine or other natural modalities is actually detox symptoms.
People who are not educated about what they are doing and simply do
something because someone suggested it will not know what to expect from
their bodies. Just as doctors ought to educate patients about what might
happen when they take a certain medication, so should anyone else offering
medical advice whether it is natural or not, especially if the person is
certified in their field.
Anyhow, detox symptoms are often mistaken for allergies, side effects, and
bad reactions. What it happening is the body is eliminating toxins through
the skin, its largest organ, and sometimes through the digestive or urinary
system. To illustrate this better, let's consider homeopathy. The rule of
homeopathy is "like cures like." This means using botanicals to treat the
very reaction that they are able to elicit. By doing this, it speeds the
body's healing since the symptom or sign of imbalance is provoked and drawn
out of the body. Of course, it is miserable when it happens, but pain and
discomfort are a necessary part of healing.
Also, this may come as a shock, but the studies that many people put faith
in concerning allopathic medicine are not as in-depth as they would believe,
especially when it comes to pet products. What often happens is a medicine
is given for a certain amount of time. Let's say
4 months. Scientists realize that after 4 months, the animals start having
bad reactions or just pass away. So they'll perform more studies, but
shorten them to 2 months or 3 months, just so the bad reactions are rare or
eliminated. Then they can say that side effects are rare. Consumers believe
it, but the researchers know that reactions are only rare within a certain
time period. So the side effects that we know about for meds are usually not
comprehensive or all-inclusive. Money talks.
About side effects to natural medicine, of course it is possible to be
allergic to certain things. And in that case, there's something wrong with
the body in question, not the treatment. When your body starts mistaking
good things for bad things, the body has an imbalance that needs fixing or
accommodating.
Also, botanical medicine and other natural modalities do not involve lengthy
or excessive exposure to known poisons. Yes, there are some natural
substances that are dangerous in large or long term doses, and in that case,
limited exposure is used. Many times in naturopathy, the rule is "less is
more." On the other hand, people practicing and subscribing to allopathic
medicine seem to believe that more is most effective. More pills, more
antibiotics, more steroids, more medicine, more vaccinations, more
pesticides, more poison. So what if any of it is known to cause liver
damage, kidney failure, immune disease, cancer, or neurotoxicity? All that
matters is that you make the symptoms stop.
Allopathic medicine is about stopping the symptoms rather than working with
the body to heal itself. Suppress the problem don't draw it out.
Prevent and treat sickness rather than promoting health. My problem is not
just the poisons, but the whole mindset. Scientifically proven means nothing
to me when you want to approach medicine in a way that causes disease via
exposure to toxin after toxin under the guise of disease prevention, rather
than working actively to prevent sickness by promoting balance in the body.
That is what health is. Not the absence of disease, but the presence of
balance and optimal bodily function overall.
Whether you use naturopathy or allopathy, you should never just follow
anyone's advice. You should educate yourself and act based on your
conclusions. The health care of you and those in your care is your
responsibility and no one else's. In the age of information, there is no
excuse for ignorance. Too many people don't research what they are putting
into their own and their pets bodies, and they expect that doctors or vets
just know what's best because they have a degree, and they could not be more
far from the truth. Those people specialize in marketing skills and customer
satisfaction. They just need to know how to pedal the meds, and give people
what they want, which is something to make the nastiness go away in most
cases.
I was there. When I first got my dog, I believe that all the professionals
knew what they were talking about since they had been doing this for x
number of years and I was new to it all. Boy, was I wrong! After my dog's
minor health problems, I started researching, and never stopped. I quickly
learned that I had been lied to, and it was no one's fault but my own. It
was my choice to accept advice at face value without researching it first.
This is why I usually post research whenever I spout off about one natural
remedy or another.
Because I understand the value of educating yourself. I understand the
feeling that you were dooped and cheated by a person whose advice you
trusted. I understand the shame of realizing that it was your ow fault for
acting without questioning first.
I put this stuff out there for people to consider it, and to let others know
that there is always an alternative. Even to the dreaded conventional heart
worm treatment that people fear, there are alternatives. Most people
wouldn't think there is because they subscribe to allopathy and worship it
as if that very type of medicine is not destroying lives with its supposed
advances in medicine.
Naturopathy understands that there are always alternatives, and that no 2
people will receive one treatment for the same issue.
Naturopathic medicine is tailored to the workings of each individuals body
in order to restore balance. Naturopathy, like positive reinforcement
training, is about starting with the least invasive methods, then
progressing to more invasive treatments if the previous ones were
ineffective.

On 7/27/14, Sherry Gomes via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> I actually tend to agree with you Becky. I'
> I've stayed out of the conversation because I have strong feelings 
> against natural remedies for humans, let alone pets. I was born with a 
> juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. It's an auto immune disease. But as a 
> child, I was bombarded by the well meaning but insensitive prattle of 
> adults, telling me the things my parents should do to cure my 
> arthritis. Finally, my parents had my doctors tell me the truth about 
> my disease. I became a skeptic by necessity. as an adult, just for the 
> heck of it, I tried a couple natural things, I think alfalfa tablets 
> once and fish oil capsules once. Of course neither worked, because 
> they can't fix an auto immune disease. Several years ago, someone 
> actually told me if I followed a specific diet and used things like 
> glucosamine, it would regenerate my damaged joints, even the 
> artificial ones and the fused knee that doesn't have a real knee joint 
> either. So, I approach natural remedies for dogs with the same innate 
> skepticism. Now, I do live in Colorado, and we don't have to do flea 
> treatments here, but I do give my dogs monthly heartworm preventative 
> in the warm weather months, and I'm not worried about the possible 
> consequences of it, because I'd rather do that than risk the dog 
> getting heartworm, as the treatment for it is far more severe than the 
> prevention. I hesitated a long time to give my old retired dog 
> glucosamine, and though I do it, I'm not at all convinced it does 
> anything for her either way, but she likes the edible pills, so I'm 
> okay with her eating them.
>
> Sherry
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Becky 
> Frankeberger via nagdu
> Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2014 5:12 PM
> To: 'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
> Subject: [nagdu] Natural Remedies
>
> You know all I respect your right to do whatever is kind to your dogs. 
> But most of the natural stuff is not and I repeat not scientifically
proven.
>
> They do not do double blind studies. So this vet group is just making 
> lots of money using our dogs as lab rats. Now granted there are some 
> things that they can prove that work in double blind studies with 
> different scientists and vets getting the same results. But they would 
> rather sell you unproven snake oil.
>
>
>
>
>
> I know a gal with a master's degree who will not use vets unless 
> nothing she tries is working. Many of her herbs and sprays do work in 
> part. But her natural flea spray she does faithfully every day give 
> her at least one bout of flea infestation a year. I have had one in 
> twenty one years. I live around cedar trees use cedar beds thus 
> according to the natural vets I shouldn't have to use the pesticides 
> on my dogs. Got news for the natural vets, you're wrong again. That 
> one flea infestation was following your advice by my husband.
>
>
>
>
>
> Now do I use the pesticides on my dogs every month, no, as those cedar 
> trees do give a level of protection. Under all the blond hair is a 
> brain I use liberally.
>
>
>
>
>
> Do I think vets and naturalist vets are a good idea, I do. But to 
> throw western medicine out is just foolish talk. The oil my friend 
> rubs on her arthritic hands works well for her. Having only hard wood 
> in my friend's home is keeping her asthma at bay. Using the spray in 
> her dog's mouth she says is keeping tarter down in her dog's teeth. I 
> have no idea if this spray works. She doesn't go to vets so I doubt 
> her dog has had their teeth checked from the last rabies shot.
>
>
>
>
>
> I am not into vaccinating every year. This was great to hear from Dr. 
> Hauly
>
> in 07 when I was at Seeing eye.
>
>
>
>
>
> Anyway, read everything on the product good and bad that you want to use.
>
> Don't use your $60,000 dog as a lab rat. Look for good studies using 
> many many dogs. What are the side effects so you can be prepared to 
> act if you need to. What are the signs to look for? Even natural herbs 
> and stuff has side effects. Remember marijuana  is a herb. You will 
> poison your dog if he gets an edible. If he does get an edible 
> marijuana  , take him to the vet fast. Don't smoke around your dogs.
>
>
>
>
>
> Look for only board certified herbalists and Doctors for you and your pup.
> I
> remember buying a herbal supplement from my Chiropracter. I broke out 
> in a rash. She told me that rash was not one of the side affects she, 
> by the way, never told me about. I told her add it to the list, as I 
> showed her my broken out area. She with twenty five years experience 
> selling snake oil, as she was not Board certified, gasped. I stopped 
> the herb and the horrible rash went away.  So think about that as you 
> give your dog concocktions of herbs.
>
>
>
>
>
> Just my opinion, never ever meant to hurt anyone's feelings..
>
>
>
> Just giving another viewpoint, shy smile.
>
>
>
>
>
> Becky and Jake
>
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--
Raven
"if God didn't make it, don't eat it." - John B. Symes, D.V.M.
http://dogtorj.com

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